The President, Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria, Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, has said that rising inflation; among other challenges, are compounding naira volatility.
In a statement, Gwadabe said the unfolding scenarios raised the risk of stagflation with potentially harmful consequences for the poor within the economy.
He said already, global growth was expect to slump from 5.7% in 2021 to 2.9% in 2022.
To keep the Nigerian economy going strong in the face of these challenges; Gwadabe called for improved local production and diversification of the economy from oil. He said the naira exchanged at N614/$1 at the parallel market; and dollar bids continued to rise as inflation rose to11-month high (17.71%) in May.
These occurrences, the ABCON boss said, were eroding the purchasing power of households.
He said, “The biggest driver of inflation is the stubborn rise in food inflation. The average price level of the food basket rose by 1.13% to 19.50% in May from 18.37% in April.
Gwadabe said globally, BDCs remained one of the channels through which the diaspora remittance funds came into countries.
According ABCON, the success of BDCs would be boost by access to multiple streams of forex earnings to deepen the market, keep the naira stable and strengthen BDCs operations.
-Punch.